This is the most basic form of Bootstrap: precompiled files for quick drop-in usage in nearly any web project. We provide compiled CSS and JS (bootstrap.*), as well as compiled and minified CSS and JS (bootstrap.min.*). Fonts from Glyphicons are included, as is the optional Bootstrap theme.

Bootstrap source code

The Bootstrap source code download includes the precompiled CSS, JavaScript, and font assets, along with source Less, JavaScript, and documentation. More specifically, it includes the following and more:

The less/, js/, and fonts/ are the source code for our CSS, JS, and icon fonts (respectively). The dist/ folder includes everything listed in the precompiled download section above. The docs/ folder includes the source code for our documentation, and examples/ of Bootstrap usage. Beyond that, any other included file provides support for packages, license information, and development.

Basic template

Start with this basic HTML template, or modify these examples. We hope you’ll customize our templates and examples, adapting them to suit your needs.

Copy the HTML below to begin working with a minimal Bootstrap document.

Steps to disable page responsiveness

Override the width on the .container for each grid tier with a single width, for example width: 970px !important; Be sure that this comes after the default Bootstrap CSS. You can optionally avoid the !important with media queries or some selector-fu.

If using navbars, remove all navbar collapsing and expanding behavior.

For grid layouts, use .col-xs-* classes in addition to, or in place of, the medium/large ones. Don’t worry, the extra-small device grid scales to all resolutions.

You’ll still need Respond.js for IE8 (since our media queries are still there and need to be processed).
This disables the “mobile site” aspects of Bootstrap.

Bootstrap template with responsiveness disabled

We’ve applied these steps to an example. Read its source code to see the specific changes implemented.

Migrating from v2.x to v3.x

Browser and device support

Bootstrap is built to work best in the latest desktop and mobile browsers, meaning older browsers might display differently styled, though fully functional, renderings of certain components.

Supported browsers

Specifically, we support the latest versions of the following browsers and platforms. On Windows, we support Internet Explorer 8-11. More specific support information is provided below.

Chrome

Firefox

Internet Explorer

Opera

Safari

Android

Supported

Not Supported

N/A

Not Supported

N/A

iOS

Supported

N/A

Not Supported

Supported

Mac OS X

Supported

Supported

Supported

Supported

Windows

Supported

Supported

Supported

Supported

Not Supported

Unofficially, Bootstrap should look and behave well enough in Chromium and Chrome for Linux, Firefox for Linux, and Internet Explorer 7, though they are not officially supported.

Internet Explorer 8 and 9

Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are also supported, however, please be aware that some CSS3 properties and HTML5 elements are not fully supported by these browsers. In addition, Internet Explorer 8 requires the use of Respond.js to enable media query support.

Feature

Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 9

border-radius

Not supported

Supported

box-shadow

Not supported

Supported

transform

Not supported

Supported, with -ms prefix

transition

Not supported

placeholder

Not supported

Visit Can I use… for details on browser support of CSS3 and HTML5 features.

Internet Explorer 8 and Respond.js

Beware of the following caveats when using Respond.js in your development and production environments for Internet Explorer 8.

Respond.js and cross-domain CSS

Using Respond.js with CSS hosted on a different (sub)domain (for example, on a CDN) requires some additional setup. See the Respond.js docs for details.

Respond.js and file://

Due to browser security rules, Respond.js doesn’t work with pages viewed via the file:// protocol (like when opening a local HTML file). To test responsive features in IE8, view your pages over HTTP(S). See the Respond.js docs for details.

Respond.js and @import

Respond.js doesn’t work with CSS that’s referenced via @import. In particular, some Drupal configurations are known to use @import. See the Respond.js docs for details.

Internet Explorer 8 and box-sizing

IE8 does not fully support box-sizing: border-box; when combined with min-width, max-width, min-height, or max-height. For that reason, as of v3.0.1, we no longer use max-width on .containers.

IE Compatibility modes

Bootstrap is not supported in the old Internet Explorer compatibility modes. To be sure you’re using the latest rendering mode for IE, consider including the appropriate <meta> tag in your pages:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">

Confirm the document mode by opening the debugging tools: press F12 and check the “Document Mode”.

This tag is included in all Bootstrap’s documentation and examples to ensure the best rendering possible in each supported version of Internet Explorer.

However, this doesn’t work for devices running Windows Phone 8 versions older than Update 3 (a.k.a. GDR3), as it causes such devices to show a mostly desktop view instead of narrow “phone” view. To address this, you’ll need to include the following CSS and JavaScript to work around the bug.

Safari percent rounding

As of Safari v6.1 for OS X and Safari for iOS v7.0.1, Safari’s rendering engine has some trouble with the number of decimal places used in our .col-*-1 grid classes. So if you have 12 individual grid columns, you’ll notice that they come up short compared to other rows of columns. We can’t do much here (see #9282) but you do have some options:

Add .pull-right to your last grid column to get the hard-right alignment

Tweak your percentages manually to get the perfect rounding for Safari (more difficult than the first option)

We’ll keep an eye on this though and update our code if we have an easy solution.

Modals, navbars, and virtual keyboards

Overflow and scrolling

Support for overflow: hidden on the <body> element is quite limited in iOS and Android. To that end, when you scroll past the top or bottom of a modal in either of those devices’ browsers, the <body> content will begin to scroll.

Virtual keyboards

Also, note that if you’re using inputs in your modal or navbar, iOS has a rendering bug that doesn’t update the position of fixed elements when the virtual keyboard is triggered. A few workarounds for this include transforming your elements to position: absolute or invoking a timer on focus to try to correct the positioning manually. This is not handled by Bootstrap, so it is up to you to decide which solution is best for your application.

Navbar Dropdowns

The .dropdown-backdrop element isn’t used on iOS in the nav because of the complexity of z-indexing. Thus, to close dropdowns in navbars, you must directly click the dropdown element (or any other element which will fire a click event in iOS).

Browser zooming

Page zooming inevitably presents rendering artifacts in some components, both in Bootstrap and the rest of the web. Depending on the issue, we may be able to fix it (search first and then open an issue if need be). However, we tend to ignore these as they often have no direct solution other than hacky workarounds.

Printer viewports

Even in some modern browsers, printing can be quirky. In particular, as of Chrome v32 and regardless of margin settings, Chrome uses a viewport width significantly narrower than the physical paper size when resolving media queries while printing a webpage. This can result in Bootstrap’s extra-small grid being unexpectedly activated when printing. See #12078 for some details. Suggested workarounds:

Embrace the extra-small grid and make sure your page looks acceptable under it.

Customize the values of the @screen-* Less variables so that your printer paper is considered larger than extra-small.

Android stock browser

Out of the box, Android 4.1 (and even some newer releases apparently) ship with the Browser app as the default web browser of choice (as opposed to Chrome). Unfortunately, the Browser app has lots of bugs and inconsistencies with CSS in general.

Select menus

On <select> elements, the Android stock browser will not display the side controls if there is a border-radius and/or border applied. Use the snippet of code below to remove the offending CSS and render the <select> as an unstyled element on the Android stock browser. The user agent sniffing avoids interference with Chrome, Safari, and Mozilla browsers.

Third party support

While we don’t officially support any third party plugins or add-ons, we do offer some useful advice to help avoid potential issues in your projects.

Box-sizing

Some third party software, including Google Maps and Google Custom Search Engine, conflict with Bootstrap due to * { box-sizing: border-box; }, a rule which makes it so padding does not affect the final computed width of an element. Learn more about box model and sizing at CSS Tricks.

Depending on the context, you may override as-needed (Option 1) or reset the box-sizing for entire regions (Option 2).

Nested headings

When nesting headings (<h1> - <h6>), your primary document header should be an <h1>. Subsequent headings should make logical use of <h2> - <h6> such that screen readers can construct a table of contents for your pages.

Customizing Bootstrap

Bootstrap is best maintained when you treat it as a separate and independently-versioned dependency in your development environment. Doing this makes upgrading Bootstrap easier in the future.

Once you’ve downloaded and included Bootstrap’s styles and scripts, you can customize its components. Just create a new stylesheet (Less, if you like, or just plain CSS) to house your customizations.

Compiled or minified?

Unless you plan on reading the CSS, go with minified stylesheets. It’s the same code, just compacted. Minified styles use less bandwidth, which is good, especially in production environments.

From there, include whatever Bootstrap components and HTML content you need to create templates for your site’s pages.

Customizing components

You can customize components to varying degrees, but most fall into two camps: light customizations and overhauls. Plenty examples of both are available from third parties.

We define light customizations as superficial changes, for example, color and font changes to existing Bootstrap components. A light customization example is the Twitter Translation Center (coded by @mdo). Let’s look at how to implement the custom button we wrote for this site, .btn-ttc.

The stock Bootstrap buttons require just one class, .btn, to start. Here we extend the .btn style with a new modifier class, .btn-ttc, that we will create. This gives us a distinct custom look with minimal effort.

In short: Look to the style source and duplicate the selectors you need for your modifications.

In summary, here’s the basic workflow:

For each element you want to customize, find its code in the compiled Bootstrap CSS.

Copy the component’s selector and styles and paste them in your custom stylesheet. For instance, to customize the navbar background, just copy the .navbar style specification.

In your custom stylesheet, edit the CSS you just copied from the Bootstrap source. No need for prepending additional classes, or appending !important here. Keep it simple.

Rinse and repeat until you’re happy with your customizations.

Once you are comfortable performing light customizations, visual overhauls are just as straightforward. For a site like Karma, which uses Bootstrap as a CSS reset with heavy modifications, more extensive work is involved. But the same principle applies: include Bootstrap’s default stylesheet first, then apply your custom stylesheet.

Alternate customization methods

While not recommended for folks new to Bootstrap, you may use one of two alternate methods for customization. The first is modifying the source .less files (making upgrades super difficult), and the second is mapping source Less code to your own classes via mixins. For the time being, neither of those options are documented here.

Removing potential bloat

Not all sites and applications need to make use of everything Bootstrap has to offer, especially in production environments where optimizing bandwidth is an issue. We encourage you to remove whatever is unused with our Customizer.

Using the Customizer, simply uncheck any component, feature, or asset you don’t need. Hit download and swap out the default Bootstrap files with these newly customized ones. You’ll get vanilla Bootstrap, but without the features *you* deem unnecessary. All custom builds include compiled and minified versions, so use whichever works for you.

Translations

Community members have translated Bootstrap’s documentation into various languages. None are officially supported and they may not always be up to date.